Should have gone mountain biking...

I changed my plans today as I went to the movies with my wife this morning so in the end I did not have much time to go far, to say, Buffalo Creek.

Instead I decided to do a 40 mile cyclocross ride on the multiple use trails around Louisville/Lafayette/Boulder.

Well 12 miles in I started to get a flat on my rear wheel. I had Slime tubes in it so I pumped it up hoping it would seal. It did not. A few hundred yards down the dirt road I had to stop again. Again I pumped it up and rotated the part where I could hear the air leaking to the bottom. Still it would not seal.

I gave up and took the tube out and put a patch on it. After reinsertion in the wheel I started to pump it up only to then have the value stem shear in half! Crap.

I replaced that tube with my back up tube. That pumped up fine. However upon releasing my pump from the stem the value core broke! Dead tube number 2.

I never had an issue with the pump before but it's an old road pump that happens to fit the frame (though it covers up the seat tube water bottle mounts). I wanted to get my second set of water bottle mounts back into play, so I am dumping the pump after all. I've order a CO2 inflater and a bulk load of cartridges.

I'm also still trying to solve the issue of punctures on my CX bike. I can't go tubeless and butyl tubes are not working for me, neither were the worthless slime tubes. I'm trying now latex tubes that I will inject Caffelatex into. Hopefully that'll work, though it's going to be a PITA to have to pump up my tires before every ride, though I do that with the mountain bike now so I'm conditioned to it...

I changed my plans today as I went to the movies with my wife this morning so in the end I did not have much time to go far, to say, Buffalo Creek.

Instead I decided to do a 40 mile cyclocross ride on the multiple use trails around Louisville/Lafayette/Boulder.

Well 12 miles in I started to get a flat on my rear wheel. I had Slime tubes in it so I pumped it up hoping it would seal. It did not. A few hundred yards down the dirt road I had to stop again. Again I pumped it up and rotated the part where I could hear the air leaking to the bottom. Still it would not seal.

I gave up and took the tube out and put a patch on it. After reinsertion in the wheel I started to pump it up only to then have the value stem shear in half! Crap.

I replaced that tube with my back up tube. That pumped up fine. However upon releasing my pump from the stem the value core broke! Dead tube number 2.

I had to call my wife to rescue me.

I should have gone mountain biking instead.

I had a day almost exactly like that out on the Doudy Draw. Must have spent an hour farting around with flats and new tubes with punctures. Made it out on the last try, but had to borrow a pump to get enough air in the tire!